Most bathtub faucets run straight into the tub, or have a combination deal by means of which the water can be switched from full faucet to shower position. If you have our bathtub, you only have a shower hookup and must fill the bath from a combination of shower water and teapotsful of hot water from the sink. This takes a while, but is not such a terrible thing; you can lie down in the tub and let the water run on the upturnedsoles of your feet while the tub fills. If you are Yosemite Sam or Porky Pig, in the old Warner Bros. cartoons, you fill the bath with teapotsful of boiling water from the stove itself. Then you are thwarted into ice cube status when Bugs decides the water is too hot for you, and shovels snow in through the window.

At first the bathwater is clear, maybe slightly tinged with chlorinate green. If you are into bubble baths, you add some fizzy business to the running water, and watch it foam. If you are into bath bombs, you throw one in. At this point the water may take on a variety of soft colors and scents. If you just want a regular bath, you do nothing to the running water at all. It maybe gets a little greener as it deepens.

You get into the bath, displacing the water. Soap and scabs and dirt flake gradually off. The water turns greyer; the steam is dissipating. The water gets into your skin. And there you are, soaking everything out of yourself.